At the moment, an oppressive cycle exists whereby parents who have experience of being in care and their children are overrepresented in the safeguarding system. They also have very poor outcomes. This is traumatic for families, and very costly for local authorities. In a north London borough for example, over 12% of children on child protection plans have a care experienced parent; this results in an annual spend of approximately £286,000. Almost 15% of children in care in the same local authority have a care experienced parent; this results in an annual spend of approximately £3,500,000.
Create Your Village aims to empower local authorities to take on their corporate ‘grandparent’ role and break the cycle of intergenerational trauma, by enhancing care experienced parents “village” of informal support. Create Your Village will support local authorities to do this by helping them to co-produce a package of bespoke services with care experienced parents in their area, and integrate the support into the local authorities early help offer.